Weapon X2
by Renegade Ace
Summary: Stryker looked at Rogue with a smile, “If only I had known about you years ago.” “What are you going to do to me?” Rogue asked him through the bars. “Make you a god.” - 17 years after Weapon X Stryker's back, and he seeks glory and revenge.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing, just taking them out for a test drive. I promise that I'll play nice.

Author's Note: After watching Wolverine I HAD to come up with a way to merge it into the X-Men movies while still allowing for Romy-ness that isn't jailbait (since Gambit is at least 21 in Wolverine which takes place 15 years before the X-Men movies). This is my attempt.

Oh, spoiler warning for Wolverine… but it wouldn't be if you went to see it, which you should. Do it now…well after reading this. Hehe.

**Prologue**

_"Do you know her?"_

_Wolverine looked at the woman, dead, with a smell that he knew that he knew, but couldn't for the life of him remember, "No."_

_"Come on, we have to get out of here," The strange young man called looking around at the ruined island as the sound of sirens got steadily nearer._

_"You go, I have to find my own way."_

---

Wolverine sat up with a sigh. It was the same dream. Being on an island, with no memory of getting there, a dead woman and a strange man telling him they were friends, telling him his name—Logan. He had always dreamt of getting his claws, of the pain and the hatred born in those moments. Now, knowing more, knowing that Stryker had been the cause, and after losing Xavier, his only link to discovering his memories again gone, and Jean, the woman he loved dead at his hands… his dreams had shifted. He was dreaming of a new scene and a new pain. He just didn't know what it was. But he had a feeling that this man, this _friend_, may hold the answer. He just had to find him.

---

"You running again?" A voice called early the next morning as Logan headed to the door.

He grinned, hitching his bag higher on his shoulder. Rogue: he should have known. "You're up early."

She hugged her sweater tighter around herself as she stepped off the stair's landing, moving towards him, "Bobby and me fought again."

He nodded, "Marie…" he had watched her since she took the cure. She had never been happy before it, but she seemed miserable after it. He was worried about her. He knew that she was strong, he also knew that she had seemed to have forgotten just how strong she really was. He wondered then, looking at her shrink away from his gaze, if she ever really knew.

She smiled at him sadly, "It's okay Logan. Ah made my choice, Ah'll live with it. So, where are you goin'?"

He looked away from her, "I have something to take care of."

She nodded, "You have a past to find. It ain't goin'a be the same with ya gone. We've gotten used to you sticking around for once."

"I'll miss you too kid," he told her taking off his dog tags and placing them in her grip once more, knowing that right then, she needed something to hold onto more than ever before, "I'll be back for these."

Marie watched him going, knowing, deep down that by the next time she would see him, things wouldn't be the same. Around the X-Men, things never were for very long.

---

Hopefully this will take off very soon. Hehehe.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not Mine

Author's Note: This is not in the same timeline as X-Men Resurrection, but is a new version of what happens after X3 based upon Wolverine Origins, which is amazing!

Please, let me know how I'm doing.

Chapter 1

Things around the institute were calming down after the changes that had happened only the month before. Students were back, classes had started again, and the teaching staff had grown with the addition of Scott's brother Alex, who felt it his duty to pick up where Scott had left off and Dani Moonstar a woman with as much talent as she had a chip on her shoulder. But she was good and she minded Storm, which was all the new headmistress could really ask for. She had taken the changes the hardest, knowing those lost the longest, and the closest of all those in the institute. She had turned to Hank for support, knowing, before long that Logan would follow his nature and leave again.

When she saw Rogue that morning wearing the familiar dog tags around her throat, she knew. Rogue. Ororo couldn't look at her without feeling a pang of resentment for the girl taking the easy way out. The southerner offered to leave, but Storm, following Hank's advice, let her stay on, filling the role of administrator since she had finished her schooling. She still didn't like it, having a traitor checking in new students. To Storm, that wasn't what Xavier's Institute and the X-Men stood for. But, as Hank pointed out, forgiveness was.

"When did he leave?" Storm asked in a sharp tone, not looking her in the eye, before Marie had even taken a seat at her desk.

"Before 6," Marie told her with a frown, no longer really minding the way Ororo treated her. Well not outwardly. She justified it simply—Storm didn't know what Rogue's powers were like. Still, she felt like the traitor she knew that Storm saw her as. She took the easy way out. And what did she have to show for it? A strained relationship and nowhere in life where she truly fit? Right, that was the easy way.

"You better turn on the news," Kitty called running into the office, not bothering to open any door, "This isn't good!"

"There was an early morning attack on the Worthington Corporation, Lab department," the cheery reporter said with the violated building in the background, "Where mutant friendly scientists had been secretly trying to find a cure for the Cure that has been heralded as one of the biggest best medical break throughs of the century and has given a renewed hope for finding a cure for AIDS and other deadly diseases…" Storm turned off the sound and looked to Kitty, "We're a deadly disease now? Do we have any clue who did it?"

"Magneto?" Rogue asked, "Who would want the Cure reversed more than him?"

"I hacked into the police reports," Kitty admitted, "There were claw marks at the scene."

"Claws?"

Kitty nodded, "I did a cross reference with Cerebro's mutant database on the claws and strength required. It came back with a match. Sabertooth."

Rogue wanted to laugh but instead sat down, remembering how the feral had last been seen falling from the Statue of Liberty. "Ah hate healing factor."

Storm shook her head, knowing that things weren't adding up. "What would Sabertooth want with the cure?"

---

10 years earlier

Stryker smiled as he looked down at the feral man strapped to the table. "It took a long time to track you down Victor."

"I guess I'm better at hide-and-seek," Victor Creed growled, struggling against his restraints.

"You double-crossed me."

"Who hasn't?"

"You may have a point," Stryker allowed before looking to the scientist standing by. "Luckily for you, I am a generous man. Erase his memory, and put a tracking tag on him—he may still be useful."

---

8 Years Later

Victor, now called Sabertooth fell through the boat, landing hard at the bottom of the water. His wounds were oozing, his body bruised from the force of Cyclop's attack and he wasn't sure if he could find the strength to swim. Well, he guessed he was going to find out for sure how good his healing factor really was, right after he regained consciousness.

---

"We found him!" A soldier called, finally finding the blip on his radar.

Stryker came forward with a grin. It had taken him six months to locate the man who had once loyally served him, whose bloodlust had matched his own. For six months he had a team searching for Victor Creed. And all the time he was under the Statue of Liberty, licking his wounds and trying to remember what had happened to him: he had flicks of memories, of Magneto leading him, of fighting Wolverine, of the bloodlust that he still felt on his account…and then nothing.

Stryker found him and brought him back under his guidance and leadership: now that Alkali Lake had been destroyed, he had to start again. But this time, he had something better in mind—he was going to pick up where he had left off and he had discovered a mutant with potential enough to make all his dreams a reality! He was going to be unstoppable, and finally find a way to kill the Wolverine.

---

Rogue, having been familiar with the workings of the Danger Room computers, now often ran the simulations for the team, something that she took great enjoyment in, taking much knowledge from the memories of her teammates, which never did leave her despite the Cure, to make the sessions as challenging as she could. She watched them with envy from the safety of the control room, remembering her time among them. She was now always on the outside looking in. Even having powers that were more of a menace, that made them all afraid of her, seemed better in their eyes than her having no powers at all.

The kids at the institute once gave her a wide berth, afraid of coming near her poison skin, now they did it because of the cure. She was no longer a mutant; she was no longer one of them. She was now a monster who gave up what they all found a way to deal with, what they cherished as their birthright.

Only Peter seemed to treat her the same as he had before, only he seemed not to hate her. While the others, even her one time friends, didn't know how to act around her, Peter was the same. He listened to her, he didn't fear touching her. He never had. She knew that if it hadn't been for Peter and Logan, she never would have made it this far. Now that Logan was gone, it made Peter all that more special to her.

"Bobby doesn't hate you," Peter told her once his training session was over. They were on the lawn, watching the younger kids play basketball, "He loves you."

"Right. Love or not, he doesn't like me too much."

"Maybe it isn't him?"

She rolled her eyes, hating it when he was trying to be a philosopher as well as a psychologist, "What do ya mean?"

"You don't like yourself too much."

"Can ya blame me? No one here likes me. Not that Ah can blame them." She lowered her head so that it was resting on her bare, folded arms, "Ah'm scared Pete. At least before Ah knew what was going to happen? Now—now nothing is for sure. Did ya hear about the girl in China whose body started to reject the cure?"

"Are you afraid it's going to happen to you? Or that it won't?"

She shot him a look. Her comment to him was cut off when the warning siren sounded. Something was coming in fast, and it was most likely bad.

Standing, Peter's armor slid into place, "Inside!" He bellowed, ushering the kids into the mansion, Rogue helping as best she could, hearing the sound of the plane passing them by, so close to the ground that the force of the breeze almost knocked them off their feet.

Bobby and Warren met them on the lawn when the bomb was released, hitting the ground ten feet away from Rogue. Warren leapt into action, even as the mist started to flood from inside, choking her, pulling Rogue away to safety, as Bobby covered it with a thick coat of ice. But even still the damage had been done.

Storm and Hank were with them when they heard the scream. Turning, they saw Angel lying on the grass pale and convulsing, his veins bulging on the surface of his skin; and Rogue, with her bare hands sinking into the ground, was screaming—tears were streaming down her face as downy wings erupted from her back.

Hank could only blink, "Oh my stars and garters!"

---

TBC


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Not Mine

Author's Note: Hope you like, let me know how I'm doing.

Chapter 2

Logan sped forward on his bike, his mind going over again and again the dream that he knew was a memory: he memorized every detail, from the woman lying dead before him, to the smell of the man who had called himself a friend. Seventeen years had passed since that day on that island. Was he even alive? Would he remember Logan? Would he try to kill him? The answer, Logan knew in his guts was the same for all three questions: probably.

Smiling, he sped on, hoping to finally find the fight and the answers that he had spent years looking for.

---

"Report; what's going on in there?"

Emma swallowed hard, her hand on her temple, her focus on the mutant in pain as the man beside her, the one without the gun pointed at her, worked away at his monitor.

"It worked," she breathed, "Her mutation has been jump started."

Stryker smiled before looking to the man, "What of the device?"

"The last of Jason's 'acid', as you call it, was released with the gas. She should be susceptible to Miss Frost's mental commands for a full twelve hours."

"Will they be able to trace the casing?"

"Only to SHIELD."

Stryker snickered under his breath, "Good." He looked over his shoulder to where another man in uniform sat, "How are we doing here Mr. Cornwall?"

"Creed is bringing in the subject now. Vitals are strong, he has survived the move, stasis and remarkably, even having his head sawed off and re-attached. There is only one experiment left to bring in sir."

"And?"

The man cleared his throat, "And we are having problems Sir. Despite difficulties on that front we are tracking him, but whenever we try to capture him, he—well he keeps killing the agents Sir."

Stryker scowled, "Gambit… try a new tactic then Cornwall. We know him, what is in his head, his memories… for fucks sake! We're the ones that put them there! Use it against him!"

"Yes Sir. Belladonna then?"

"Of course Belladonna."

---

A cold sweat had formed on Warren's face—No! Not Warren, she was Rogue… Marie, someone. Warren was lying close by. She couldn't lie down, she had wings now, but they didn't work like she knew they should. Not yet. Now, there was only pain.

Next to the monitors displaying the X-Rays that had been taken of her, Hank stood his glasses off, and a look of astonishment clearly seen on his features. Beside him was Peter, Bobby and Storm, all looking on in curious apprehension.

"Considering how long she was here," Hank told them, finally tearing his eyes off the screen, "Remarkably little is known about her mutation: capabilities, limitations, extremes. Jean had little medical information aside from what she gathered from Rogue's experiences with Logan's healing factor. Professor Xavier's resources didn't prove to have much more. All that was known was that she could borrow powers while touching, and that she imprinted personalities and memories that seemed to last past physical contact. Now I see is that there is far much more to it than was observed. By her own reports Rogue absorbs powers, her body takes them on like they were her own, but I don't think even she knew it was like this." He now turned to where she sat, clutching to her knees, rocking back and forth, her wings twitching in time to her movements, "Her bones have hollowed, her wing structure exactly matches Warrens."

"Will it last?" Bobby asked, anxious to know what was going on. He had tried to talk to her, tried to get through to Marie, but it was like she couldn't hear…like Marie wasn't there. He even tried calling her Rogue, only to hear her laugh.

Here Hank flipped through some papers, "According to Jean's reports, duration of transfer depends on the length of skin to skin contact. The Professor had extrapolated a transfer rate of 60:1."

"Meaning what exactly?" Storm asked, shaking her head. She was worried. Someone was attacking mutants on her very doorstep. That, she didn't like. And right then, their only clue as to who did it didn't even know who she was.

"Meaning that for every second Rogue is in contact with someone's skin, she absorbs the amount of information that it would take a telepath to gather in a minute. Which, knowing as many telepaths as I have, is remarkable. If power and energy transfer occurs at the same rate… one can only imagine the damage if she held on for too long."

"She almost killed Logan," Bobby whispered, for the first time realizing just how close to death he had come time and time again. He had thought that her powers would hurt him, certainly, but kill him? He only thought that she was afraid of rendering him unconscious. Guilt overcame him as he realized how selfish he had been for pushing her so far when she had been trying to save his life; how much she did, for his life. Just how much she had to suffer, because of him.

"Remarkable."

"Warren is coming around," Peter told them, moving to help the winged mutant to a sitting position.

"How do you feel?" Hank asked, his scientific curiosity getting the best of him.

"Like I was struck by lightning."

"Not lightning, just Rogue. You'll be alright." Peter told him with a laugh.

"Rogue? Is she…?" Warren's gaze moved wildly until he saw her: Rogue had his wings. "Oh God!" Unsteady as he was Warren would not stay on the bed, not while Rogue was there, not while she was going through what he had, not while she didn't have to go through it alone. "Rogue?"

She laughed, her eyes catching him. She stilled, her eyes seeking his, "He won't like it. I'm a monster. I have to cut them off! Pain, so much pain! They have to go. He wouldn't understand."

"What is she talking about?" Storm asked, looking between Hank and Warren who took a dazed step back.

"My memories. She's remembering my memories. I sawed off my wings but they came back."

"He hated me," Rogue whispered. She blinked, her shoulders slumping. "Warren?" Behind her the feathers that had just grown started to fall out and the once thick bone of her wings shriveled until they were useless stumps attached to her shoulder blades, "They're back."

Bobby took a step forward, "its okay Marie…"

His hand, his bare hand, came near her. Reacting before thinking, only knowing that she was again what she was born to be, cursed like she was meant to be, she jumped and put the table between her and them, holding onto it dearly when she discovered just how weak she really was, "Don't."

Hank pushed Bobby's hand back down by his side, "its okay Rogue."

She shook her head, "No." She brought a hand to her temple, hoping that it would help her clear her thoughts, "Wait. Ah... mah memories."

"I know that it's disorientating."

"There was a bomb."

"Yes. It produced a gas that triggered the re-manifestation of your mutation. Alex and Kitty are analyzing it now."

Balance was slowing returning until she finally trusted herself to stand on her own, knowing, finally just who she truly was, what she truly was. "They're back."

Hank nodded, "Yes. Marie…"

She shook her head, coming to terms faster than she ever thought she would. She had a feeling that the cure wouldn't last, "No. Rogue. Ah'm Rogue. Who did it?"

"We're figuring it out now. Until we know more, I'm going to remove the remainder of the wing stumps, and then I want you to get some sleep. Your genes have had a hard day."

Nodding, Rogue followed where Hank gestured, knowing, deep down, that things were going to get worse, and that having had wings, was only going to be the beginning.

---

His name was Remy LeBeau, but more and more he was coming to call himself Gambit. The name, although given to him by the monsters that imprisoned him, suited him. And more and more, he was living up to it. And right then, he was doing it in style.

"Aces over Jacks; read 'em an pay up!"

The man sitting across the table slumped back in his chair, his flush falling to the floor, "But she's my daughter!"

"Then you shouldn't have bet her." A red tint shown in his eyes as they looked over the crying adolescence sitting in the corner. "Leave her and walk away." He smiled, "And don't think about getting your son to shoot me," his staff was suddenly in his hand, the end, glowing a purple that matched his favourite shirt, pushed in the throat of his son, who's hand was in his jacket, about to pull the pistol he carried from its holster. "I would hate for him to go boom."

"Patrick, leave her. Let's go."

"Au revoir, mon amie," Gambit waved, setting his hat down low on his head, listening to them go more than watching, a deck of cards idly shuffling in nimble fingers because not only did he like having something to keep them busy, but also in case any of the retreating men had a second thought about leaving peacefully.

Once secure that they had really left he eyed the girl, his feet coming to rest on the surface of the poker table, "Sit with me, Petite, and please stop crying. I don't like it when pretty girls cry. With a face like yours you should always be smiling. What is your name?"

"Claire," she told him, nervously doing as he asked, afraid of this new man as she had her father.

He split the deck with one hand, pulling the Ace of Spades from the middle, "And what kind of father bets his only daughter in a poker game with a cheat?"

"You were cheating?"

He put his feet down and leaned forward, his hat tipping up enough for her to see the red ripple through his otherwise dark eyes. "You deserve better than him." Smiling again he stood up. He easily swung his long jacket over his silk shirt and eyed her once more, "Come with me."

She did as she was told, "Where are we going?"

"We? I am going to another, livelier card house. You, however, are going far away from here." He faced her when they got outside. He pulled a card from the deck and wrote on it an address and gave it to her along with his winnings of the evening. "Go to this address and tell her that I sent you. She will take care of you. Claire, you will have a home and be schooled, you will never worry about being bought or sold again and of course, you will fall madly in love with me, as all girls should their hero. Now go, before I ask for a kiss."

Smiling up at the man who offered her freedom, Claire stood on her tip toes and kissed him anyway, on the cheek. With a blush and new tears forming she turned to go.

"And you better go to her," Remy called after her, "I will be checking up on you."

"Another good deed for the reformed, for the boy scout," a cool voice called from behind him.

Gambit inhaled his back straightening. He turned, and his throat caught. It always did when she was near: his own poison, his Belladonna.

"What brings you here Chere?"

An eyebrow rose, "When did you start adding in French words?"

"Since you started to wear underwear," he countered looking at her closely, "I can see your panty line."

She laughed stepping towards him, "You always were the charmer LeBeau."

He met her, his arms snaking around her, drawing her closer to him, her body feeling so right against his, the way it always did, the way, he feared, it always would. "Except with you Belle. You know me so well; I can't insult you by feeding you all the lines."

She smiled at him, her blue eyes looking into his dark ones, seeing into his very soul. She kissed him, falling into the softness of his lips, before he fell at her feet, unconscious.

Behind her there was a growl as Victor Creed stepped out of the shadows, "Be easy with him," she told him, kneeling down and removing the staff and cards from her former lover's possession, "He gets mad when he gets bruised." Her eyes met Creed's when he hoisted the prone figure into his arms, "Stryker should have sent for me sooner; always send the beauty when the beast is incompetent."

Her smile grew when he growled again, "You know Creed, I like you a lot better this way. Stryker was right to cut your voice box out." She laughed as she turned and took out her cell phone and dialed.

"Yes?" Stryker's cold voice asked at the other end of the line.

"Mission accomplished. Gambit is in the arms of your own personal lap dog."

"Good work."

Full of herself Belladonna flipped her phone shut, not hearing what Victor clearly could as she did so: Stryker's voice telling him to "finish the job".

With a smile and growl his claws extended and with one slice Belladonna fell to the ground, her blood pooling around her. Victor almost laughed, kicking her as he stepped over her—he never did like flowers, no matter how pretty they smelled.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Not mine, although I wish they were.

Author's Note: So after an embarrassing long hiatus due in part by time and inspiration, I sat down and watched X-Men Origins last night and remembered that I had started it and where it was going. So after re-reading it, I am posting another chapter, and hopefully more. It will be a shortish fic, at least shorter than my other one (X-Men: Resurrection, which I am reading again to work on once more).

Chapter 3

"The procedure is done," Emma called with a tired smile. She had been monitoring Rogue's thoughts for the past hour. It was hard for her to lock onto the shifting thoughts and personas that surrounded the young woman's mind. But, as always, Emma would not give up. Even despite her reasons for being there, her reasons for following the man who had captured her once, who killed her sister… well Emma knew that there was really only one thing she could do with her life—be the best at everything she tried. And right then, she was trying to be bad. "She is resting now."

"Good," Stryker whispered mixed within a sneer as he came to stand behind her, looming over the woman who would not shrink to have him near, "You know what to do now."

Emma smiled, "Yes." Now she could really show off.

Hank looked at the girl sleeping on her side. He had given her enough sedatives for her to be out for a further two hours, hopefully long enough for him to see just how much damage had been done. He wished that Jean was still with them, he could use the extra hands of a fellow doctor. But, since the past could not be undone, he would have to settle for the untrained hands of mutant geniuses: well a mutant genius and Bobby. Kitty had already finished initial scans of the vessel, and with Alex's help, had found traces of the gases used. They were being analyzed even now. Leaving Alex and Bobby to trace the vessel's origins.

Glancing once more at Rogue, hoping that she would find some rest from the memories of Warren, he turned off the lights and left the lab.

'Come to us Rogue… come to us…"

Rogue slowly opened her eyes and stood, almost falling from the effects of the drugs still in her systems. In slow, zombie-like movements made her way from the lab to the garage, where only the day before she saw Alex finish his new toy.

"Sir," a lieutenant called, picking something up on his monitor, "Creed is back with Gambit. The guards want to know what you want to do with him?"

"In the containment cells nearest the lab."

"Sir?"

"He will not escape again. Do it."

"Yes Sir."

"How long before our prize is at our door?"

"An hour."

"Have Emma and Victor ready to meet her. And tell Emma to cover up for once. I will take no chances with this one."

Bobby paused outside the lab. He hadn't spoken to Rogue since their fight the night before. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Everything had changed in so very little time. He had to see how she was coping with the change; ready for her to let him go.

Steadying himself for seeing her, knowing that she may not yet be herself, Bobby entered the darkened room, the hairs on the back of his neck rising that the mess that befell his eyes. Rushing he summoned the lights, and blinking at the sudden change, he paused. Rogue was gone.

"We have traced it back to SHIELD," Kitty told Ororo, Dani and Hank. She was taking over the briefing from Alex who had left to check on the garage where kids had thrown off the sensors. "I tried to hack their system, but they are good. All I managed to find is that the device was stolen a week ago. It was constructed by a mutant who goes by the name of Forge."

Hank glanced at Ororo whose control did wonders in that moment. "What does it do?"

"I don't know." Kitty admitted with a frown.

"I know you aren't going to like me suggesting this Ro…"

"Then don't Henry," She warned.

"Considering the nature of this device, more mutants than just Rogue could be at risk."

"She's gone!" Bobby called, rushing into the room. "Rogue's gone."

"And she took my bike!" Alex added as he joined them. He was frowning.

Storm cursed. "Hank, find out what she was hit with! Dani, do what you can with Cerebro, track her. And Logan. We may need him. Kitty, get me Forge's contact information. Its time he and I have a meeting."

–

Logan paused as he looked around. He was making his way South. He had a feeling he should have been heading North, where so many other secrets had been revealed to him. But his guts told him to go South. And for as long as he could remember he trusted his instincts, knowing that they would never lead him wrong.

Right then they were telling him that he was getting closer to answers than he had been in a very long time. He just wondered if he would like what he found.

–

Ororo took a steadying breath as she sat down in her chair behind the desk that once belonged to Xavier. There were more moments than not since his death that she wished he was with her.

She turned her attention to the screen when a handsome, American Indian's face appeared. He looked both troubled and yet happy to see her. "Ororo."

She smiled, "Forge, it has been a long time."

"Too long. What can I do for you? I have a feeling this isn't a social call."

"You still know me well. I'm calling about the capsule that was stolen from SHIELD a week ago. It showed up on my doorstep this morning."

He straightened, "What?"

She nodded, "It contained a glass that activated the powers of one of the students who had taken the Cure. What do you know about that?"

"About the gas? Nothing. As far as I am aware SHIELD is doing nothing with a gas of that nature. The capsule was designed to store toxic gases."

"Will you look into any possible connection SHIELD may have with the gas as well? Its not that I don't trust SHIELD, I just..."

"Don't trust SHIELD." He smiled and nodded, "I will keep you posted."

"Thank you Forge, I am grateful."

"For you Ororo, it is the least I could do. Please keep yourself well."

"You as well. And, I am sorry for how things ended between us."

"It had to happen, didn't it? It wasn't all bad, I still think of you whenever there's a warm breeze. How is the mutant?"

"Missing. But we shall find her."

–

The light hurt her eyes, granted with how much everything else hurt, she wasn't really surprised. She looked around, and got a sickening sense of Deja vu. It was as though she had been there before. No, not her. Logan.

She groaned, knowing that this wasn't a good sign. The sound of a growl coming from her right made her freeze. She knew that sound. And she hated it. Sabertooth.

Standing, and casting only the briefest glance to the man in the cell adjoining hers, she turned and faced the feral man. She raised an eyebrow when she saw him. Someone had given him a haircut. It didn't do much to add to his beauty, in fact, it only seemed to make him appear more like an animal, although she didn't know how that could even be possible.

"What are you doing here?"

"Is that a question you should be asking of yourself, my dear?" A voice called from behind her.

Sabertooth in front of her, a wall to her right, another cell to her left and Stryker behind her. Could her day get any better? She glanced up. Electrified fencing. Well, she had her answer.

"Stryker," she grumbled, turning her anger at the world towards him, "I should have known it was you."

He smirked, looking her over, "Well, well, well. Rogue. I must say that it is an honour to finally meet you, a mutant of such talent... If only I had found you years ago."

She took a step back, knowing the look in his eyes. It was the same look Magneto had given her when he used her to turn the world leaders mutant. "What do you want?"

"That should be obvious."

"My powers."

He smiled, "A mutant who could survive taking on the powers of Magneto, Pyro and the great Wolverine. How is Logan these days?" He asked, pointing at the dog tags still fixed to her wrist.

"You won't get away with this."

"And who is going to stop me?" He asked looking around, "The X-Men are in bad shape these days with no Cyclops, no Jean, no Professor. No one to help you."

"We'll see about that."

He laughed, "Spunk. You picked that up from Logan I suppose. I wonder what else you learned from him? What memories do you have that even he isn't aware of?" He stepped nearer her prison, meeting her eye, "Oh well, we'll find them out in time. Once we're in your head."

She smirked, "Go ahead, its already crowded in there," she pulled free a glove, "Want me to lend you a hand?"

He turned away from her, walked around the lab within which he stood, looking down the line of other cells, counting the failed experiments as he went before looking once more at her, "You will be magnificent," he beamed, "My greatest work of art. You will succeed where all others have failed."

Rogue followed his eye to the other cells, resting on the man in the cell next to her, who was watching them both intently, "Weapon 11."

"You will be weapon 12, with all the other issues fading away. No more worries about making sure to gain the right mixture of powers. The nature of your powers makes you naturally able to take them all on, no matter the kind, no matter the power limit... you will be everything I have ever dreamed of."

"Know what happens to a mutant with too much power?" She asked, growing uneasy, "Ends up killing everyone, especially the ones trying to control them."

"It will take time," he admitted, ignoring her statements as he turned again, taking in his staff who were already at work in the lab, "They're all new and need to be trained on the techniques used in the previous experiments. So we had to collect them, and deconstruct them if need be." He moved closer to her, his eyes darkening, "You will be perfect! And, once complete, I will watch as you destroy Wolverine."

–

TBC... eventually. Promise.

Same goes for my other fanfiction, X-Men: Resurrection.


End file.
